It was primitive but that doesn't mean they were completely hopeless - thorough research was done on the bodies to the best of their abilities - 'course in a world with only alibis and eye witness reports for evidence...

Was it Iceland, where they have the penis museum? Which has the member of Rasputin on display?

Cutting body parts off slain enemies as trophy is not unheard of in many cultures. Japanese warriors used to cut off the heads of their enemies - this turned to ears in the second Korean war. In Kyoto you can find the Mimizuka, a tomb which enshrines around 38000 ears. There are still some hana no haka, or nose temples.
And here's a more recent Western occurrence:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_ ... e_war_dead

There's a new script around: PHANTASMAGORIA! Check the Script Party topic in the Bard's Forum!Skip to new scripts

I posted something on the now defunct Pinkerton Road forums about six years ago. I'll try my best to piece it together from my memory, but this is more or less the idea I've always had in my head.

GK4 would take place about nine years after GK3. Gabriel is depressed and spending his time doing not much of anything at Schloss Ritter. Some years ago Gerde married and moved away. The castle is kind of a mess. Gabriel hasn't seen or heard from Grace since she left during that eventful night in Rennes le Chateau. However, recently Gabriel has been plagued by nightmares in which he has a son who is in grave danger. He also sees Grace in his nightmares.

One day Gabriel gets a call from the US - Gran is very sick, so he takes a trip to New Orleans where he hasn't been in a decade or more. Gabriel sees Gran, who tells him she's proud of him. Gran also mentions she was always fond of Grace and asks where she is. Before Gabriel can answer Gran drifts peacefully asleep. Gabriel visits the corner Bourbon and Dumaine, where St. George's Rare Books no longer exists. The next day Gran passes away, and Gabriel feels more alone than ever before.

Gabriel returns to Rittersberg, and the following night the nightmares return. This time he sees Grace in danger from an unknown entity. Gabriel wakes up with a newfound resolve, and he departs for Tibet to begin his search for Grace at the monastery. He meets the monk of whom Grace had kept a picture. He tells Gabriel that Grace was only there for a few months, and that she met someone and left the monastery with him. The monk doesn't know where they went. Gabriel asks the monk if Grace was pregnant. He says he is not sure.

Gabriel eventually discovers that Grace married the man she met and moved with him to Scotland. By this point the nightmares have grown more intense. Gabriel eventually finds Grace, who is working at a museum. She's surprised but happy to see him. Sure enough Gabriel meets their son (I couldn't come up with a name - maybe Frederick?) and tries to explain to Grace that she and the boy are in danger. Their son is the same age Gabriel was when he lost his parents (8), and Gabriel realizes he is the one primarily in danger (of dying, at least).

I never really worked out the bulk of the game since my mind was mostly on how the story would start and end. One cheesy idea is that Grace's husband is actually part of a cult or coven that worships some evil entity (that's where the ghosts that were hinted at in GK3 could tie into the story). The coven wants Gabriel's blood so they can empower and start their own bloodline of witches. They brought Grace to Scotland hoping that Gabriel would eventually come looking for her.

By the end Gabriel and Grace will have broken the Schattenjager curse for good, saving themselves and saving their son from a similar fate as other Ritter men. The Schattenjager talisman also is destroyed in the process. Gabriel finally feels free from the burden that has weighed him down all these years. He sells Schloss Ritter and moves back to the US with Grace and their son, planning to revive his writing career once more and start a new, Schattenjager-free chapter in his life. Grace finds a position in academia.

Ugh, I can't quite remember everything but that's the gist of it. The thing with Gabriel's blood is too similar to GK3, though. There's certainly another way to cross Gabriel's path with the witches/ghosts. Overall I thought GK4 should be a definitive end to the story and give the guy the happy ending he deserves. I really liked the idea of breaking the Schattenjager curse and saving his son, too.

Actually cutting off body parts as a trophy has been a nasty part of humans in many cultures - and not just the primal scalp hunters either. In Japan there are mimizuka, temples enshrining cut off noses and ears of conquered enemies. There's mokomokai - collecting tattooed heads of Maori. In the US it was common to take home parts of lynched individuals of African heritage. In WW2, mutilation of Japanese war dead was so widely spread among American soldiers, Roosevelt was even given a human bone letter opener.

Aaaaanyway... going to unearth my fanfic today, only fanfic I ever made and the reason I never made any other fanfics...

There's a new script around: PHANTASMAGORIA! Check the Script Party topic in the Bard's Forum!Skip to new scripts

Actually cutting off body parts as a trophy has been a nasty part of humans in many cultures - and not just the primal scalp hunters either. In Japan there are mimizuka, temples enshrining cut off noses and ears of conquered enemies. There's mokomokai - collecting tattooed heads of Maori. In the US it was common to take home parts of lynched individuals of African heritage. In WW2, mutilation of Japanese war dead was so widely spread among American soldiers, Roosevelt was even given a human bone letter opener.

Indeed. The Mongols were notorious for this sort of thing - in their case, "pyramids of skulls" wasn't just an expression. Because the Persians showed bad faith by killing Mongol traders and mutilating Mongol emissaries, when the Mongols conquered the Persian capital of Samarkand, they created separate pyramids of the skulls of men, women, children, horses, dogs and cats. They were also ordered to send an ear back for every enemy slain. Nine sacks of ears were sent back to Subotai Khan.

<Captain Obvious>
Don't mess with the Mongols if you know what's good for ya, Jack!
<Captain Obvious>

Well, I was working on a story that takes place roughly two to four weeks after GK3, where Gabe tackles a case of witte wieven in the forests of Lochem (East of Netherlands).

It's twelve pages long so far, fragmented, but to my surprise I enjoyed reading it back (as in, I wasn't totally embarrassed). Since the story Jane released this one can no longer be canon,it has Grace after all, so I'm still not sure if I should continue. But I did do a lot of research and had a lot of stories I wanted to tell.

If you have OpenOffice I could show you what I have, if you're interested and if you have the time... you'll at least have quite a background in Dutch folklore afterwards!

There's a new script around: PHANTASMAGORIA! Check the Script Party topic in the Bard's Forum!Skip to new scripts

Yes, I definitely have OpenOffice. Feel free to send me a PM and I'll check it out!

Would you mind if I add some comments? I'm part of a critique group with other authors and we share comments and critiques all the time. If you'd like, I can do the same for you. No worries! (As we say here in Australia!)